Skilling on the weather, readers on conversation, and why editorials aren't signed

James Janega

Let's look into the Trib Nation Way-Back Machine again for some of our favorite conversations together about the news and how it's put together. Ready? Let's go.

These pictures from our early days in the Spring of 2010 say it all:

Want to sit on a couch and talk about the weather with Tom Skilling? Plenty of room in the Trib Nation tent at Printers Row Lit Fest, circa 2010. Want to hang out and talk in a bar? Trib Nation made neighborhood house calls. (Thanks, Colonel Tribune.) Want advice from Amy Dickenson? Pull up a hassock. Want to hear Mary Schmich talk about writing? Difficult! There was a live band next to us and Trib Nation could not yet afford a microphone! (These days, the band had been moved and Mary has been given a microphone -- but it’s a tad more crowded.)

Since then, thousands of you have talked with us at Trib Nation events. Hundreds of you have joined us for community conversation lunches, and thousands of you check in with us on tribnation.com and at facebook.com/tribnation. It’s humbling, and an honor.

The spirit of the interaction remains the same as in those early days. Want to shoot us a line? Email tribnation@tribune.com, and Trib Nation coordinator Lauren Krause and I will see it.

While those new conversations start up, I want to draw your attention to some of those early Trib Nation blog posts, which remain gems..

For instance, here's Tom Skilling showing how he pulls together a weather forecast (computers, yes, but also by hand).

Here's a post from the 2010 Winter Olympics, during which our Breaking Sports coverage was so fast that people complained we were telling them who won medals before they had a chance to watch the races on TV. Spoiler alert: We're in the news business. We'll tell you EVERYTHING as fast as we can.

Here's a letter from Editor Gerry Kern announcing to readers what Trib Nation would be.